EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空) is raising its profit target for this year by 20 percent from an earlier target set last quarter to reflect the continuing decline in global crude oil prices.
“Fuel costs had originally accounted for about 40 percent of EVA’s total costs, so the declining oil prices have had a strong effect on the company’s business,” EVA chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) told a media briefing.
However, Chang said he maintained a neutral outlook for the oil price, saying that the recent plunge was “unreasonable.”
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Oil prices could possibly settle between US$60 and US$80 per barrel in the near term, he said.
EVA, Taiwan’s second-biggest carrier, reported net losses of NT$591.22 million (US$18.67 million), or NT$0.18 per share, for the first three quarters of last year. The firm’s consolidated sales totaled NT$133.09 billion last year, the highest level in the company’s history and up 7.19 percent from 2013.
EVA is more bullish about its bottom line this year and Chang said routes to the US and Japan would remain the two major drivers for the firm. The carrier plans to open two new routes and raise flight frequency on eight routes to these two regions this year, he said.
Chang said the carrier is scheduled to raise its weekly number of flights to the US to more than 80 by the end of 2017.
The company plans to focus on route or flight expansion to cities in western Japan, to cope with the increasing preference of Taiwanese travelers for those areas, he said.
Chang made the remarks after unveiling a plan to offer premium Japanese cuisine — devised by renowned chef Motokazu Nakamura — to passengers in both business and economy class on its flights from Taipei to Osaka starting on March 10.
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